Anxious 4 year old staffy Advice needed feel like a prisoner!

I have a 4 year old staffy who i found in a alley when he was 2 weeks old he was dumped in a box and left out to die, i took him in, he was so young i had to bottle feed him every 2 hours then teach him to lap up milk and so on.

We have always had behavioural problems but they seem to be getting worse for no obvious reason, i suspect a lot is due to the fact was so young when i got him.

My neighbours came banging on my door last week at midnight after we had got home from a birthday party yelling at me that the dog has been howling and crying since i went out (this was in front of my 2 year old) i apologised but he wasnt having any of it said the dog always does it when im not in and he is phoning the enviromental health. I left it at that because my daughter was getting scared. Anyway next day i posted him a letter explaing he is a rescue dog i wasnt aware of the problem i was deeply sorry and will try and reduce the noise, i said i will leave the radio on low, i will shut the curtains leave chew bones out for him and contact a behaviorul trainer anyway the neighbour came round said he appreciated the effort. The dog has not been left all week so i KNOW there has been no noise but i nipped out tonight for 1 hour to get some shopping and he was there at his window when i got home came straight out telling me he has been howling again. I apologised again and came in, i am very upset and have spent most of the night in tears, i dont want my dog to be upset however i need to pop out now and again and feel like a prisoner in my owne home, i promised my daughter i would take her out for a the afternoon tomorow and now i dont want to go incase i come back to more complaing. I DO appreciate it must be really annoying for my neighbours and i am trying to do something but they expect a quick fix and i carnt do it. The traning centre said he was to emotinaly upset to train and gave me the number of a woman who gives out herbal remidies to help with anxiety i have contacted her and am waiting for her to send me some drops.

Other problems i have is , he is very difficult to walk very strong and just pulls on the lead, he is scared of traffic new people, the hoover, the wind, me cleaning up, the rain, the car, people arguing he will go and hide and shake. He constantly licks me if i tell him to stop he licks and chews his paws.

I really dont know what to do please can anyone offer advice.

Claire

poor little swetheart and what miserable gits of neighbours you have if it was all night long I could understand then, I wouldnt be able to give advice about the behaviour problems , but about the neighbour complaining to the enviromental health I was under the impression that it had to be between the hours of 11pm and 7am for it to be made a big deal of not 100% on this though

Hi Clare
I can't offer any specfic advice with staffies, as I 'm not experienced with them, but on a general note with the seperation anxiety, have you tried going through the door just for a few minutes, waiting outside, then going back in, not making a fuss of him, then just keep doing this on a regular basis, and after a while increase the time you spend outside so he gets to understand that when you go out you are coming back and he does not have to worry.
With scary things outside, has he a favourite toy or treats which you could take with you on a walk and when anything scares him get him to focus on the toy or treat untill the situation has passed, then praise him for being a good boy if he has not reacted to the situation.
I too, have got a neighbour who constantly complains, I know how upsetting this can be.
As for the training centre you mentioned, I would personally look for a animal behavourist instead of a trainer, who could understand his problems better, usually your vet can recommend people in your area.
I really hope things soon improve for you
Margaret

Thanks for the kind replies its nice to have people who are understanding everyone i talk to just say oh the poor neighbours, I will get in touch with my vet on monday and see if they can recomend anyone. Thank you again and if anyone else has any advice i would love to here it thank you x

B*gger the neighbours....... if it's during the day, there is less onus on you to "fix" the problem, and it will give you the time to try and sort your darling staffie out.

Hugs hon - don't let them get to you x0x

Thanks so do you think even if they did phone the enviromental health he wouldnt be taken away from me, this is what my neighbours have threatend me with. I am absolulty petfrified of loosing him?

I would think that you would have to get warnings first . He could not be taken from you and put to sleep for that .
If you live in rented accomodation you might find the people who rent you the house may issue warnings if there are complaints .

In my experience these are quite common to lots of staffies but they can generally be worked on.
Pulling on the lead is probably the most common complaint from staffy owners and can usually be helped if not resolved with the use of a head collar of one description or another such as the gentle leader, canny collar, dogmatic etc.
Lots of staffies are also quite sound sensitive, I found by ignoring it and just carrying on with what I was doing while talking to the dog in a bright happy voice worked quite well. Diesel still likes to attack the hoover and the noise of Juicer used to send him mad, but I just made a point of using it every day while chatting away happily to him, mind you he probably couldn't hear a word over the Juicer.
Licking takes lots of training and practice to reduce let alone eliminate.
Does he get lots of exercise or is that limited due to how difficult it is to walk him? Just a thought but if you could knacker him out with a walk before leaving him with say a kong or something to occupy him you might have a bit more success. I know it's hard to increase the amount of time spent walking them when your arms are being yanked out of their sockets but it will help. The more practise they get with the things that freak them out the better.

There were some really good points there made by others.
I personally would do this: Start on a day when you have time for a really long walk first, play ball with him to tire him out as well. Then on that first day leave him with a bone or a kong and literally leave for three mins, come back in and sit down where he can see but ignore him.
Do this everyday but increase time gradually.

As others have said a tired physically dog will be happier mentally.

You may never be able to leave for long periods (and important not to as this will set dog back) but you must be able to leave for short periods or it will drive you nuts!!

Maybe because of his bad start you felt sorry for him and maybe he finds it hard to do stuff by himself now as you always looked after him.

It sounds daft but if he was a child that had abandoment issues the first thing you would want to work on is confidence.
Your dog needs to be more confident in learning new things for himself. You may find getting him interested in agility or mind games may also benefit him.

Let us know how it goes.

Don't panic...

My neighbours did everything in their power to get my dogs taken always from me when I first moved in. I have three dogs and they did not want 'my sort' in the neighbourhood. They called the RSPCA, The Environmental health and the dog warden on a number of occasions.

Here are a few things I found out...

A howling/barking dog is only an environmental health issue if they make a noise louder than the acceptable level for more than 10 hours in a day or for more than 4 hours continuously between 11pm and 7 am.

The RSPCA has no power to take your dog unless they can prove serious neglect or abandonment... You have neither.
The dog warden has no power to remove your dog, or any dog unless it is abandoned or stray. The environmental health can issue you with a noise abatement order and or issue you with a fine. They can not take your dog away. No one can take your dog away unless you hurt it, neglect it, or abuse it. So your neighbours will just have to get over it!

Keep a diary. When you go out, for how long. If they try to prosecute they will be asked to keep a diary and it will be their diary against yours. (If there are too many discrepancies the evidence will be discarded). If you can, try to get a nicer neighbour to keep a diary as well. My lovely neighbour 2 doors up kept a diary that clearly showed evil neighbour was talking out of their bum!

Make sure in your diary you make note of the neighbour's behaviour as well... Knocking on the door, what ties? peering over the fence, stopping you in the street. -

After the third call out to me, the nice policemen with the environmental health officer asked if I wanted to put in a harassment charge against the neighbour... You know what... this shut them right up!